Graysea's comment: There's nothing startling about talking to Susan Boyle. She straightforward and up front. Nothing false about Susan, at all. She has even said "What you see, is what you get" and she's might fine just as she is. You just got to get to know her. Better yet, go see her show. There's where the startling is. Stunning and amazing, too!
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Straightforward Susan Boyle coming to Ruth Eckerd Hall
Talking to Susan Boyle is a bit startling.
It's not the thick Scottish accent. It's not that she's inherently difficult to talk to — she's plenty friendly.
It's startling because the conversation lacks almost all the bloated, generalized platitudes celebrities are accustomed to passing out. Boyle is self-depreciating, does not seem that impressed with herself, does not give answers for the sake of filling air.
Try to zig right, she'll zag left. Ask an obvious question, she'll give an obvious answer. (Of course she'd want to go to the beach in Florida. Who wouldn't?). Try to be serious, she'll whip-crack a joke. For instance: Does she think she's a role model?
"I don't know that I'm a role model," she said. "If you'd seen my legs, I wouldn't exactly be a roll. I'd would be more like a table."
Boyle, 53, was out on her U.S. tour, which stops at Ruth Eckerd Hall in Clearwater on Saturday. The tour had a rocky start for the singer, who had to cancel a California performance due to a throat infection. Now she was calling from . . .
"Oh, I can't really remember where I am. I've been so many places."
When you think about it, Boyle's disposition matches her unexpected lot in life. The soprano wonder went from virtual obscurity to viral celebrity via the animal of reality TV.
Everyone knows the narrative by now, one that has produced countless feminist and sociological think pieces on the business of beauty.
She was a middle-aged church singer from a small town in Scotland when in 2009 she tried out for Britain's Got Talent. She was the opposite of an oily TV pop tart. She was average-looking, a little rumpled, and no one was ready for that crystalline voice when she sang I Dreamed a Dream from Les Misérables. Why? Maybe that was the universal, uncomfortable question.
The palatable puzzle launched Boyle into stardom, with all its trappings. The TV clip would climb to more than 650 million hits on YouTube. Although she didn't win the contest, she got most of the attention. She was the subject of makeover stories and tabloid speculation about her mental health. When the show ended, she nonetheless embarked on the Britain's Got Talent tour and started her career.
"Touring was a bit of a new thing for me," she said. "It took some time to get into it. I enjoy touring. I enjoy the contact with the audience. Some audiences have a good atmosphere, and if you get that, that's half the battle. It's not really the performance that's stressful. Well, some of it is stressful. You've got to be honest."
In 2012, Boyle was diagnosed with Asperger syndrome, a discovery she has called a relief. She likes meeting people who share the diagnosis, and often gets a sense when others have it.
"Having Asperger's means you've got problems relating to people," she said. "Maybe it means that you've got problems with social communication. So I could probably say that I could tell from the people. I'm not an expert, but I can tell. Everybody has different needs."
Boyle has been nominated for Grammys and sold more than 22 million albums. Her debut album entered the Billboard 200 at No. 1 and spent six consecutive weeks there, earning her an industry record.
She made her acting debut in the 2013 holiday movie, The Christmas Candle. She always wanted to act, she said, having developed an early love for musical theater that surpassed even her love for Donny Osmond.
"It's a good marriage, yeah," she said of acting and singing. "I've been very lucky in that I've had a bit of both. In the musical theater side I did an album called Standing Ovation, which people have probably forgotten about by now."
Her sixth album, Hope, came out in October. It has some more contemporary covers, opening with Pink Floyd's Wish You Were Here.
"If you stay in the same genre all the time, it's a bit an act of being typecast," she said. "If you're always known for the same type of song, you get a bit stale. Putting stuff like Wish You Were Here out really helps a bit."
Her favorite track from the album is Sarah McLachlan's Angel, a song she calls "poetry set to music" that reminds her of her mother, Bridget. Boyle spent years caring for her mother, who died before she auditioned for Britain's Got Talent.
She'll perform it at Ruth Eckerd Hall, along with songs including Oh Happy Day and I Can Only Imagine. She'll banter with the crowd. Ask her the obvious question about stage fright and she gives the obvious answer.
"Who doesn't get stage fright? It's a new audience. It's a new venue. It's about getting to know people. You have to get to know them and keep it a little informal."
Boyle has had some days off to rest her voice. She listened to doctor's orders. But she's also rolling with her instincts and listening to Susan, logical, straightforward Susan.
"I don't think the doctors can really tell you much," she said. "I just got some antibiotics and am feeling a little better. I was on voice rest for a couple days and now, as you can hear, I can talk."
Yes. As we can hear.
Contact Stephanie Hayes at shayes@tampabay.com or (727) 893-8716. Follow @stephhayes.
